Boy band A. C. E drop first K-pop NFT merchandise collaboration, but fans aren’t happy – here’s what has them upset

Fans tell the Post they fear A. C. E associating themselves with NFTs will harm the band’s reputation because the digital tokens are bad for the environment

They point to the vast amounts of energy NFT transactions use, but the A. C. E NFTs’ issuer WAX says it uses a different process that is energy efficient

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K-pop boy band A.C.E have courted controversy with their collaboration on the launch of merchandise backed by NFTs. Most of these digital tokens of ownership are linked to a cryptocurrency, the mining of which requirees high-end computers to run non-stop, which uses a lot of energy. Photo: Beat Interactive

Published: 10:15pm, 22 Apr 2021Updated: 11:40am, 17 Nov 2021

Fans of K-pop group A. C. E were upset to learn this week that the band would be launching an NFT trading card merchandise collection, saying it could be bad for the environment.

On April 19, The Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX), announced it had teamed up with K-NFT, a new company set up to bring NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to the K-pop realm, to release digital collectibles starring the members of A. C. E, a boy band active since 2017.

However, many of the band’s fans, known collectively as Choice, were unhappy about the NFTs’ launch and A. C. E’s collaboration with the crypto merchant WAX.

An NFT is a unique digital asset that has its own blockchain-based signature that allows anyone to verify its authenticity and ownership. A digital record of the asset is saved on blockchain ledgers that can be read by any individual looking to find out its owner.

They have grown popular among digital artists because they serve as certificates of authenticity. But most NFTs are linked to a cryptocurrency, and critics point to the astronomical energy costs of mining cryptocurrency – which requires high-end computers to operate constantly at full power – as an ecological disaster.

Critics of A. C. E’s collaboration with WAX pointed to the energy inefficiency of NFTs. Some estimates say that one NFT transaction can use more than eight times the amount of electricity the average household in South Korea used in the whole of 2016.